Berliner Weisse Screw-Up

Hi!

So I brewed up a Berliner Weisse about four weeks ago following the process from Brewing Classic Styles. I varied the process just a bit:

1.) Brewed a 50/50 pilsner/wheat wort to 1.035.
2.) chilled to 80 degrees, pitched 1 tube of White Labs lacto in an attempt to get the lacto a 'head start' if that matters.
3.) Held at 75-80 for three days until I got really nervous because there was no lactic aroma or flavor, and pitched a small starter of 011 since the tube was right at expiration.

As of yesterday, yeast fermentation has ended at 1.007, and it tastes like a weak wheat beer with still no lactic character. My question is: did I somehow screw this up, or will the lacto just take longer? JZ's process states to pitch both at the same time.

Thank in advance,
-b

It sounds like you didn't give the lacto a chance to really take hold and do it's thing. Pitching just 1 tube isn't nearly enough to get it going, and 75-80F is probably a little on the low side of the temp range.

I usually build up a colony of lacto in a starter of apple juice before I pitch, and even with that, and 100-110F, it still takes 5-7 days to get to my desired pH level.

If it tastes good, drink it. If not, you can always add more lacto to it and let it ride for awhile.

Yeah, I thought that might be the case. I was torn based on the BCS process. It didn't seem to jive with what I have read on here, so I split the difference. If I rack it into a keg and set it aside at room temp, will it ever sour? I think I'll do that and hit it with more Lacto at the same time.

blakelyc said:

Yeah, I thought that might be the case. I was torn based on the BCS process. It didn't seem to jive with what I have read on here, so I split the difference. If I rack it into a keg and set it aside at room temp, will it ever sour? I think I'll do that and hit it with more Lacto at the same time.

Click to expand...

At room temp, with alcohol present and minimal sugar left to consume... probably a little bit. Will it sour enough to taste like a berliner, probably not.

I was just talking about this on another thread, but you can add a little bit of lactic acid to kick up the sourness. You'd generally not want to do this to "quick sour" a beer, but if you have lactobacillus doing it's thing, you're going to get some complexity, so it might be worth trying just to see.